Officer fired for punching man won't be prosecuted

The former Sarasota Police officer who was fired after he was caught on camera repeatedly punching a man in the face at a Main Street nightclub will not be charged with a crime.

Sarasota Police internal affairs investigators concluded that former officer Scott Patrick used excessive force when he tried to arrest Jason B. Dragash, 29, at Club Ivory during the early hours of Aug. 4.

Prosecutors now say there was no excessive force — that Patrick was justified when he punched Dragash in the head 10 times and then choked him unconscious, as Patrick wrote in his report following the arrest.

Patrick sought to arrest the stocky former football player for disorderly conduct after he allegedly caused problems inside the nightclub.

Former Sarasota Police Chief Mikel Hollaway fired Patrick in November, and the 1,000-page internal affairs report was sent to the State Attorney's Office for review and possible criminal charges.

In a written statement released Thursday, prosecutors announced there was no excessive force, a decision they based heavily on the opinions of two independent consultants they asked to review the case — an FDLE agent and a retired Sheriff's Office lieutenant.

The consultants found that “the use of force was not only justified but also not excessive.”

“Since FDLE is responsible for establishing the use-of-force core curriculum and reviewing certifications of officers, the opinion is significant and decisive,” Assistant State Attorney Spencer Rasnake wrote in the memo.

Rasnake said Friday he consulted the two lawmen because the State Attorney's Office is not a law enforcement agency.

“In our review of the available evidence, there was insufficient evidence to show the force was not justified,” Rasnake said. “Our standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.”

He stopped short of saying the police department erred in firing the officer.

“I don't have an opinion on that,” Rasnake said. “They didn't have all the evidence we did, including the independent reports.”

Michael Barfield, who chairs the legal panel of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he has never seen a case when two outside experts were asked to consult on a misdemeanor battery charge.

“If the State Attorney's Office is now going to let expert opinions carry the day, I can find four law enforcement experts who will say the contrary,” he said. “What frightens me is that now any defendant can invoke an affidavit or an expert's opinion to say their client didn't commit an offense or was justified. It makes the criminal justice system quite perverse.”

The State Attorney's Office, he said, has a history of dropping charges when the defendant is a law enforcement officer.

“It doesn't take an expert to see this was excessive force,” Barfield said. “You can watch the video and determine that yourself.”

FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said her agency does not track how many times inspector Knowles has consulted on cases involving allegations of police misconduct, or how many times he has found that the officer erred.

“He gets several requests a year,” she said. “There have been times he has said there was a criminal excessive use-of-force used.”

Plessinger clarified that Knowles was asked only to review the case. He did not conduct a separate investigation.